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Two Nashua-Area Men Plead Guilty in Poaching Cases
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Enforcement - Region 6
This news release was archived on Friday, August 17, 2012

A Nashua-area man and his father have pleaded guilty to multiple misdemeanor charges related to illegal activities in Valley County and on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in 2010 and 2011.
 
As part of an agreement with prosecutors, Silver Tihista, 28, pleaded guilty in Valley County Justice Court to illegally killing a bull elk within the exterior boundaries of the reservation in July 2011; hunting elk without a license and unlawfully possessing and transporting the animal as part of another incident on the reservation; unlawfully possessing and transporting a pronghorn antelope as part of a July 2010 incident on the reservation; and unlawfully possessing a bighorn sheep skull that he illegally picked up in southern Valley County last October.
 
Silver Tihista was fined a total of $1,075, paid $2,000 in restitution to the state of Montana, and $1,500 in restitution to the Fort Peck Tribal Fish & Game Department for killing the two elk. He also lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years.  
 
His father, Ralph “Rick” Tihista, 59, pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawfully possessing and transporting an elk. The charge stemmed from the July 2011 incident on the reservation. Ralph Tihista was fined $335 for his involvement in that poaching case.